Hello, Jennifer Williams here. Most of you already know me as the food columnist for The Dagger. But what you don’t know is that I love to shop almost as much as I love to eat! So in keeping with that, I will now be writing a third column called Cloak & Dagger. Cloak & Dagger will essentially be a Secret Shopper blog, or exposé if you will. I will be allowed to vent about substandard shopping experiences in Harford County and also give praise to those establishments who are providing excellent customer service. This will provide honest feedback to local businesses on what they are doing right as well as what could be improved. So stay tuned!
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Unfortunately, if you have ever bought a car, whether it be new or used, you probably have some sort of horror story to tell about the dealership. Maybe you bought a lemon or perhaps the salesperson talked you into a pricey sports car that you couldn’t afford when all you really needed was a minivan to schlep the kids around. Five years ago, I paid off my car, but was still hesitant to replace it. Finally, the time came when I decided that I wanted something more plush for the dreadful commute to my day job in the city. Truth be told, I got sucked into an episode of Celebrity Apprentice where Donald Trump was touting the new Buick Verano.
A Buick?? The only thing I knew about Buicks was that my Great Uncle Lou always drove one and it probably got about 3 miles to the gallon and was 20 feet long. Me on the other hand? I’ve driven Toyotas since I got my drivers license umpteen years ago. To this day, I have fond memories of the Toyota that I bought from my father when I was in high school. But I live around the corner from Boyle Buick, so off I went for my first car buying experience in almost 9 years. Instantly, I was treated like an old family member and was introduced to one of their salesmen, Mike Duray. Mike was extremely knowledgeable about every aspect of the vehicle. What I liked most was that he was very low-key and not pushy. I explained that I was “just looking” and did not wish to make a purchase until summertime. He asked if it would be ok to keep in touch by phone or e-mail and I suggested that text messaging would work best for me.
Unfortunately, I was not completely sold on the Verano. So I made my rounds to other dealerships in Harford County. I even borrowed a beautiful Lexus for a couple of days from Lexus of Towson. Nice ride obviously. However, the salesperson could not explain any of the vehicle’s features and handed over the keys with an empty gas tank. Not very impressive. I suppose he felt that with a name like Lexus the car would just sell itself.
Meanwhile, Mike Duray continued contacting me via text message regarding various options, specials and financing deals. Finally, with nothing better to do on a Saturday night, I again drove through Boyle Buick’s parking lot. And, lo and behold, I see a Certified Pre-owned 2011 Buick LaCrosse with lots of bells and whistles. Not the car that I was originally shopping for, but it appeared to be right up my alley. The dealership was closed, but immediately I whipped my cell phone out of my purse and texted Mike asking for specifics like price and mileage. Apparently, Mike had nothing better to do either, and he responded right away.
Long story short, my husband and I eventually test drove the car and fell in love with the LaCrosse. But typical car-buying questions kept popping into my head. What type of interest rate could we get on a used vehicle?
Does it make sense to purchase an extended warranty? How much money did we want to put down? Would they drop the price at all? What is it like to deal with their Service Department for future repairs and maintenance?
I was dragging my feet, simply because I didn’t want to have a car payment. Wishful thinking, right? Mike was very patient throughout the entire process, answering each and every question I had and then made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Several trips were made to Boyle to finalize the paperwork. Every employee that we met along the way greeted us upon arrival and seemed truly happy to see us, from Mr. Boyle to Brady and Adam, our finance representatives. There was no “hard sell” on the car, on the warranties or on the financing. They provided us with factual information and allowed us to make the decisions that suited our finances as well as our lifestyle.
To date, I have traded over 100 text messages with my new friend Mike. And I’m sure there will be many more as I continue to be a loyal customer of their Service Department. And down the road, no pun intended, I’m sure that a new vehicle will be in our future. I’m also on my way to check out these discounted bikes for my next purchase. Many thanks to everyone at Boyle Buick for making this purchase as painless as possible!
Boyle Buick is located at 3015 Emmorton Road, Abingdon, MD 21009 or on the web at www.boylebuickgmc.com. Stop in and say hello. You’ll be glad you did.
See Mike, he is the man very knowledgeable about the vehicles he sales. Made our
car buying experience pleasant.
Nice to hear of your positive experience with Boyle Buick. It has not always been that way for Boyle and it is nice to hear things have changed. Thanks for sharing.
I have purchased every car that I have owned for the last 25 years from Boyle Buick. Why? The service is excellent!! Jennifer, the best part of the purchase is yet to come.
kim
In my experience, everyone at Boyle is nice and personable. My only “beef” with their service department is that they do not make appointments for oil changes. The “stop by” approach works sometimes, yet there were times where I stopped by for my oil change and was told that it would take at least 2 hours to get to me. I understand that the Buick demographic has historically been those over 55…just look at their waiting room on any given day! I understand that some retired people have all day to wait for an oil change. Busy working professionals however, do not.
Other than that minor annoyance, I was quite pleased with my Boyle experience.
Note – there was no intended age slight within this post!
Why not change the oil yourself? It doesn’t really take any mechanical skills and costs pennies compared to having it done. Best part – no waiting room. Either way – hope it gets better for you.
I recently purchased my first Buick from the Boyle family dealership. Only after shopping Toyota, Acura, Cadillac, GMC, Ford and others did I find the most stylish and suitable vehicle to be the Buick.
There was not the usual annoying high-pressure sales tactics typically found in the horror of car shopping at this dealership.
Having bought many automobiles over 35+ years, my experience with the Boyle dealership was the easiest, most accomodating and pleasurable of all my auto purchases. Chuck, Chad and Brooke go above the normal to satisfy the potential buyer.
My sister was shopping for a Mercedes and I told her about the beautiful Buick Lacrosse. She has had it over a year now and loves that car.
Bought my new Lucerne there from Chad a couple years ago – could not have been a better experience. Chad took the time to walk me through every feature of the vehicle, every computer menu and every driver option. Excellent dealership, and I agree they really do treat you like family. The service department is fantastic too. My previous vehicle was starting to give me trouble… Blake and his team always diagnosed the problem and corrected it without any “extras”. They never tried to offer me a $300 brake fluid flush or any of the other garbage that you don’t need that a lot of dealerships try to sell you these days. Just simple maintenance and appropriate repairs. I would recommend Boyle to anyone.
a True story, i was there and live it with my wife and my mother and father. we where asked to do a Las Vegas night, at the Maryland golf and country club. you know, you go around and try to win fake money and then at the end of the night. you bid on stuff, that auction off, with your fake money. My wife and i where just sitting there waiting, to bid, with our fake money. I watch Mr Boyle who was running one of the tables, you know to win fake money. give his son a lot of fake money.
Not money he won, just money, so his son could bid and win! He could bid on stuff, just like my ex wife and i, wanted to do.
we spent all night trying to win our money the RIGHT way. I’ll never forget what we SAW. He didn’t know, what we had seen. we did! I’ll never forget it.
Sad but true, we weren’t one of the Real people, like the Boyle’s.
A wise man once said, the sign of integrity is what a person does when no one is watching! we never bought a car from the Boyle’s
but then again, we’d seen what many other of you, hadn’t!
A sad but true story, its over 40 years ago, but I’ll never forget it. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a PIG!
ok..how much did they pay you? how do I get my business to get a favorable article in the Dagger? Everyone reads this paper and my sales could go up and up. I bet you have to know someone to get this type of favorable press………let us in on your secret?
Hello Car Seller. This column works exactly the way that the food columns work – they are editorials which are simply the opinion of the author (me). I do not receive a fee from either The Dagger or the business which is featured in any particular article. That would defeat the purpose of the column. Businesses which do not meet my expectations will not like what I have to say about them.
well stated Jennifer…from some of the lame-brained comments, there were two i believe, it’s hard to know who will comment…i enjoyed your review and know for a fact the Boyle Buick Family is one of integrity and service to the community…just tell it like you see it, kiddo, and you’ll be fine.
Thank you Mr. Holden – I appreciate your comments! As an amateur writer, I value any and all interest in my pieces.
Car Seller,
Sounds like the way to get your business to have a favorable article in The Dagger is to run it properly. I am surprised that someone would take the time and energy to create an article for The Dagger with no compensation. I thought Ms. Williams and others were paid at least a nominal amount. What kind of cheapskates run this thing anyway?
I have plenty of stories of cloak and dagger and they aren’t good. I had a dealership tell me that I was the one who did the problem. So, buying a car, and being a writer, makes you able to write a favorable article for the dagger. I was thinking of a gottcha article and was let down.
Car Seller or Call Seller,
I’m also looking forward to a ‘gotcha’ article and I’m sure there are plenty of opportunities in Harford County to do one. If I don’t see a ‘gotcha’ article soon I’m going to nominate some local businesses that need a wake up call.
bet they don’t do a gottcha article…..I can nominate some businesses that are outstanding and need no gottcha article but there are some that could care less about the average harford county resident. They just want our money without giving us the business.